The One Cotroceni Park project, developed by One United Properties in Bucharest on a 5.8 hectares land plot, will give a new dimension to the Work - Live - Shop concept on the local market, offering a 15,000 square meters retail area, comparable to that of a medium-sized shopping centre, to the future employees and residents who will live within the project.

According to one of CEE’s most active developers, tenants in recent years have become more open to innovative and sustainable solutions when it comes to renting retail or office spaces. Tibor Tatár, CEO of Futureal talked to Property Forum about the company’s current projects and changing tenant expectations. Tibor Tatár will be joining a panel on the Hungarian property market at our upcoming CEE Property Forum 2019 in Vienna.

Nearly 70,200 sqm of office space is currently under construction on Katowice’s office market, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Of the six projects underway, the largest is Face2Face Business Campus, comprising two phases with a total of 46,800 sqm.

Lublin’s total office stock remained unchanged at the end of June 2019, flatlining at 191,200 sqm, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Despite the lack of new supply, occupier activity was healthy, which pushed the city’s vacancy rate down to 10.6%, representing a 9.1 pp decrease year-on-year.

The office space market in Prague is currently doing very well and has a great potential for further development. Its excellent condition is illustrated by several parameters that Cushman & Wakefield has been monitoring on a long-term basis and whose correct interpretation in relation to the current results is presented here. These indicators are primarily the highly positive trend in the office demand (the occupied office space increased by 47,000 sqm), vacancy rate remaining at its record-breaking low (with just 4.6% of stock being vacant) and the highest number of newly opened buildings in the last five years (17 buildings including 11 newly built ones).

Kraków’s total office stock amounts to nearly 1.35 million sqm. According to reports from developers, more than 110,000 sqm is expected to be completed by the end of 2019, pushing this year’s new supply up to a record high of 200,000 sqm, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank provided an investment loan and a VAT facility of €90 million in total to two real estate funds managed by Credit Suisse Asset Management. The funds will utilise the proceeds for the acquisition of the prime office building Astoria in Warsaw from the developer Strabag. pbb acted as arranger and sole lender under the facilities.

Atenor announced that an agreement has been reached for the sale of the fifth Váci Greens Building to a Hungarian private fund set up by MEFG Zrt. The delivery of the Váci Greens E building, which is being sold in a future state of completion, is scheduled for September 2020.

KGAL has acquired the DRN office building in Prague for a pan-European special real estate Alternative Investment Fund (AIF). The purchase is in line with KGAL’s strategy of Europe-wide diversification across prime locations, and is its first investment in the Czech Republic. The fund now holds properties in Germany, Austria, Ireland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland and the Czech Republic.

The first half of 2019 witnessed two new office completions in Szczecin totalling nearly 3,500 sqm, whilst another 27,300 sqm is expected to be added to the city’s stock by the end of this year.